Pathfinder 1E I've been thinking about a freeze on leveling.

[Wiseblood]

I've been giving some thought to running a campaign for eighth level characters. Characters that start at eighth and stay there. Instead of leveling they gain gestalt levels. Starting with level one. I am mostly considering this because I am tired of running for and playing as low level characters. I also want to avoid the prep time of higher level play and sheer durability of those characters.

What do you think?

 

[MichaelSomething]

Try this...

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?206323-E6-The-Game-Inside-D-amp-D

 

[GMforPowergamers]

I've been giving some thought to running a campaign for eighth level characters. Characters that start at eighth and stay there. Instead of leveling they gain gestalt levels. Starting with level one. I am mostly considering this because I am tired of running for and playing as low level characters. I also want to avoid the prep time of higher level play and sheer durability of those characters.

What do you think?

I don't know if there is a pathfinder version, but google E6, it is a game using the D&D rules that goes up to level 6 then lets you upgrade by 'buying' feats skills and stuff with xp after that. starting right at level 5 or 6 could really get the feel you are going for. (I know they talked about e10 for 4e)


edit: ninjaed

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

I'd recommend you talk it over with your players. I know for me, the pursuit of the next level is one of the things that keeps me going. If this is enough incentive for them, then consider it.

 

[Tharian]

I'm not sure if it completely fits the bill, but I can think of two other possibilities here. The first is using the slow advancement track so the characters are still gaining XP. You can then make sure the encoutners and story awards are lower level to further keep them at 8th level for a longer period of time.

The other alternative, but likely less ideal for you given your comments, could be instead of gaining XP, have the PCs us the Mythic rules and limit how many story encounters (or whatever the correct word is) that is required for tehm to gain another mythic level. You keep more control that way and they still get to explore advancing the PCs.

 

[Cadence]

I don't know if there is a pathfinder version, but google E6, it is a game using the D&D rules that goes up to level 6 then lets you upgrade by 'buying' feats skills and stuff with xp after that. starting right at level 5 or 6 could really get the feel you are going for. (I know they talked about e10 for 4e)


edit: ninjaed

I have a version of E6 for Pathfinder that I'm working on that might give you some ideas . The latest is at: http://p6codex.com/AbridgedP6CodexV0p2.pdf . Once you reach 6th level, the feats in this version let you get everything you could at 7th in about five feats, and you can get at least one of the cool things you could at 8th in the standard game.

It's the beta-version of everything you need to run the core Pathfinder in E6 mode. Unfortunately I'm about 3 months behind on getting the things from the APG, UC, and UM ported over to it. Hope springs eternal and I'm hoping to start rolling out some previews in the next month or two.

 

[ZenFox42]

You definitely want to look into "E6", there's a couple of PDF's out there from its creator that explain it very well. I *think* the latest version is 0.4.1, but I'm not sure.

The basic concept is that 6th level PC's are already practically gods, compared to the average peasant anyway. But not so god-like that a large group of well-trained guards still can't kill you. He stopped at 6th level partly because 4th-level spells start to overpower the game. Once you hit (or start at) 6th level, you get a new feat every 5000 XP. It uses all the features of the underlying system (3.5 or Pathfinder), with the exception of some new above-6th-level feats.

But on the other hand, the way Pathfinder works things, you get some nice perks at 8th level, which makes it a reasonable place to stop, but now you have to deal with those pesky 4th-level spells. There's good discussions of that here and here.

I've looked at E6 in some detail, it seems well thought-out and was extensively play-tested by its creator's group. I've never played it, but many people seem to like it.